The Musical Legacies of Childhood and Children

Abstract

Abstract We rely on our memories of childhood and our experiences with children to help us retain or recapture a profound expression of musical experience. Looking at the autobiographical data, we might critically examine our own positionality: “How can we monitor the influence/power we have on the creation of musician identity in our students?” and “How are these questions answered in my own past and how does that affect my teaching?” Thinking about how creative musicians see children, we might ask more generative questions: “What is my student doing with the musical material?” or “What does my student most need to know [to follow the musical trajectory they have started]?” The book ends with a call to see the child as musical being so that we can envision their creative potential, and respect their individual, cultural, and evolving ways of being.